Line-clamp



A. T. LUECKENBACH.

LINE CLAMP.

APPLICATION FILED mus, 1920.

Patented Dec. 21, 1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

$44k 72/ AM A. T. LUECKENBACH'.

LINE CLAMP.

' APPLICATION FILED m. 23, 1920.

1,363,002. Patented Dec. 21,1920.

7 2 SHETS-SHEET 2.

mus:- 7mm UNITED STATES ANTON '1. LUECKENBACH, OF NEENAH, WISCONSIN.

Specification of Letters Patent.

LINE-CLAMP.

Patented Dec. 21, 1920.

Application filed January 23, 1920. Serial No. 353,517.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ANTON T. LUECKEN- BACH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Neenah, county of W innebago, and State of Wisconsin, have invented new and useful Improvements in Line-Clamps, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in line clamps such as are employed for clothes lines, hammock and tent ropes, binder cords, and for numerous other purposes involving the holding of a flexible cord or cable under tension and utilizing the tension to clamp it securely to a support or to secure the respective ends thereof together when the cord is used as a binder.

In the drawings Figure 1 is a side elevation showing my improved clamp as used for holding one end of a clothes line under tension;

Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the same.

Fig. 3 is a top view and Fig. 4 is a sectional view on line 44 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a side view showing my device suspended from the support, and adapted to swing in various directions.

Like parts are identified by the same referenee characters throughout the several views.

A supporting plate 1 carries a stationary gripping member at its lower end, adapted to cooperate with a swinging gripping member carried by a clamping plate as hereinafter described, and is provided with an outwardly projecting flange 2 preferably perpendicular to the plate and adapted to serve as a support for a clamping plate 3 connected with the flange 2 by a suitable pivot pin or rivet 4. The clamping plate 3 is provided at its upper end with an outwardly curved arm 5 provided with a saddle 6 formed by offsetting a partially separated portion of the material of which the plate 3 and arm 5 are composed, and bending it into a hook or loop opening upwardly. The curve of this loop is convexly rounded on its upper surface to form the saddle 6. The extremity 7 of the hook or loop projects upwardly substantially parallel with the opposing surface of the arm 5 and is slightly turned outwardly at its upper margin to facilitate manipulation of the cord or line into position on the saddle as shown in Fig. 1.

The lower end portion of the plate 1 is reversely bent to form a line gripping member comprising a V-shaped, transversely extending groove 10 in its front surface, the depth of this groove being accentuated by bending the material forwardly from the plane of the plate 1 above and below the groove indicated at 11 and 12. The lower end of the clamping plate 3 is provided with an opposing V-shaped ripping member composed of the lateral y projecting inclined flange 14 and the horizontal flange 15 integrally connected with each other at the apex formed by these converging portions of the gripping member. This gripping memher is preferably formed by bending marginal portions of the plate 3 outwardly after partially separating the flange 14 to allow it to be bent into the inclined position in which it is illustrated in the drawing.

Clamping plate 3 is reinforced or stiffened by beading or embossing it to form the annular rib 17 encircling the pivot pin 4 and the vertically extending rib 18.

The gripping member formed by the flanges 14 and 15 is adapted to swing upon the pivotal axis of the pin 4 in an are which extends rearwardly and convergingly toward the lower wall 20 of the V-shaped groove 10, whereby a cord or line 22 may be manipulated across this groove and pressed into it by the clamping member. It is, therefore, obvious that if the cord 22 is drawn under tension over the saddle 6 and passed downwardly across the groove 10 while the clamping plate 3 is manually held in a retracted position 6., with the lower end swung forwardly), then as soon as the clamping plate is relieved from manual pressure, the tension of the cord upon the saddle 6 will pull the upper end of the clamping plate forwardly, thereby causing the V- shaped gripping member formed by the flanges 14 and 15 to not only push the cord into the groove 10 but to press it against the the wall 20 of the groove with a wedging action. This wedging pressure increases in direct proportion to the pull exerted outwardly upon the saddle 6 and therefore any increase in strain upon that portion of the cord which is under tension will merely increase the clamping pressure and wedging action above described, and make it impossible for the cord to slip. The clamping pressure, of course, cannot injure the rope and the apex of the wedging member is prevented from doing so by that portion of the strand of rope which is interposed between the parallel faces of the clamping jaws. The rope will have a certain resllience and will therefore resiliently limit the wedging pressure upon wall 12, preventing injury to the portion of the rope engaged by the apex of the movable member of the clamp.

To release the cord it is, of course, merely necessary to pull the lower or free end outwardly or forwardly from the plate 1 until the lower end of the clamping plate 3 and its clamping flanges 14 and 15 are drawn away from gripping position after which the cord may be released by pulling it laterally from between the gripping members.

Another feature of my invention which is of considerable importance resides in the fact that the clamping plate 3 and the support 2 to which it is pivoted both lie in planes parallel to the line of tension and the cord is gripped or held in the groove 10 in close proximity to the planes in which the plates 2 and 3 lie. My improved line clamp may, therefore, be stamped from sheet metal plates which are comparatively thin, but which by reason of their considerable dimensions along the lines or in the planes in which the strains are exerted, will not bend or yield under any strain to which they may be subjected in ordinary practice.

Referring to Fig. 5, it will be observed that my invention is not at all dependent for its efficiency upon its being attached to a rigid support, but on the contrary it is peculiarly adapted to besuspended in such a manner as to allow it to swing from side to side, or outwardly at its lower, end, whereby it will automatically assume its most efficient position, utilizing the tension of the rope in the most effective manner. In said Fig. 5 an eye screw 24: is used to suspend the flange 1 from a support 25, the eye of the screw extending through a hole 26 in the flange.

If used as a hammock support, for example, the clamp will swing from side to side with the rope, thereby avoiding any tendency of the rope to impose lateral strains on the clamp or to pull away from the saddle. In fact, when the clamp is in the position in which it is shown in Fig. 5, the clamping pull upon the saddle is even more effective than in the Fig. 1 position, and the strain is more evenly divided upon the upper and lower ends of the clamping plate.

I claim:

1. A line clamp including the combination of a pair of co-acting V-shaped clamping members, and means for producing relative movement to a clamping position, the moving member being adapted to present a substantially parallel face toward the farther face of the fixed member and move progressively nearer the other face of the fixed member with a wedging action.

2. A line clamp including the combination of a pair of pivotally connected plates, 9. line engaging projection and a line receiving saddle beingintegral with one plate, and the other plate being provided with an upturned flange bent to form a co-acting depression in the path of said projection whereby upon rotation of the saddle bearing plate the projection will present a substantially parallel face to one wall of the depression and will move with a wedging action across the other wall of the depres- SlOIl.

3. In a line clamp, a pair of co-acting, V-shaped jaws adapted to engage a line between two parallel faces with a clamping action and between two converging faces with a wedging action, said wedging action being opposed by the line interposed between the parallel faces.

4. A line clamp including the combination of a pair of relatively fixed and swinging pivotally connected plates having flat surfaces in bearing contact, means for supporting one of the plates, cooperating laterally extending clamping projections on both plates at one side of the pivotal connection, and a line engaging saddle on the swinging plate at the otherside of the pivotal connection, a projection on the relatively fixed plate provided with a substantially V- shaped recess, the lower wall of which forms an inclined bearing surface toward which the other projection may swing in a con verging arc to engage the line and force it into said recess and to exert a wedging action thereon to clamp it against said bearing surface.

5. A line clamp including a supporting plate having flanges substantially at right angles to each other, a pivotally connected plate having flat surfaces in bearing contact with one of said flanges, and provided with oflset projections at its respective ends, one of which is curved to provide a line receiving saddle and the other of which is substantially V-shaped in a cross-section and a bearing projection carried by one of the flanges of the relatively fixed plate and provided with a recess to receive said V-shaped projection.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

ANTON T. LUECKENBACH.

Witnesses:

O. C. WEBER, A. R. WOOLFOLK, Jr. 

